Wishing
by Errie Wyvern
Summary: Kagome, at last, wishes on the Shikon no Tama. But what does she wish for?
1. Selfish

In the end, she knew it could never end well. The jewel could never be pure, just as she could never be. There would always be that black spot of corruption in it's shining lavender depths. There would always be that little but if spite and resentment in her heart. When the jewel was complete and Naraku was dead, she took an inventory of the costs.  
  
Villages of people, countless souls of dead women, Kohaku, Kikyou, Kouga's tribe, Inuyasha's first life, and Kagome's only chance to be normal. It even consumed Onigumo eventually. In his obsession for Kikyou, he dragged both of them into hell. Miroku's family was lost; Sango's own hand buried her entire line. Shippou had witnessed his only family turned into coats by the Thunder brothers.  
  
Kagome knew that they would never be free from the jewel. It had been what drove the, Naraku was just an excuse. Without the jewel, they could do nothing, they would have no purpose. Miroku's Kazaana was gone, Sango's Hiraikotsu broken into a million different shards, Kikyou's bow was shattered, but the Tetsuaiga and Kagome's bow remained in tact. They were the only ones who would be able to fight at all.  
  
Kagome had never realized it before. The only reason that she and Inuyasha were even together, the only reason that they were ever apart, the only reason that they were both alive in the first place was the Shikon no Tama. And she and Inuyasha would never be content raising a family. Never. They would always be restless, fighting, their flawless teamwork becoming more and more unwoven by the minute.  
  
So Kagome stared down the bottomless pit of the well. The inky blackness seemed forgiving. The warmth of the jewel in the sun was pleasant and completely the opposite of what she knew it could do. Sango and Miroku were clutching at each other, their hands interwoven. Shippou was leaning against the well, completely at calm with everything. He'd said his goodbyes last night.  
  
And Inuyasha...  
  
Inuyasha was watching her with unblinking eyes of molten gold. She wished to see them narrowed in concentration, in anger, in worry. She wanted to see him fight again.  
  
Kagome looked at the Shikon. The jewel was cloudy as always. Midoriko...was she lonely in there? All by herself, the fight against an immortal foe? How long had it been since she slept? Since she saw another person?  
  
The reborn miko grasped her plain bow and full quiver of arrows. She saw Inuyasha grab at Tetsuaiga out of reflex. Her madrone eyes looked at him.  
  
"Inuyasha...we wouldn't be happy here. We wouldn't be able to survive. If we were to stay with this world for the rest of our lives, our spirits would die. We would become listless...lifeless..."  
  
Inuyasha stiffened, waiting for her to say that she would leave him...go back to her world where she could forget about all of this. Forget about him.  
  
Kagome closed her eyes and gently clasped the Shikon no Tama to her breast. She reached out with her free hand to place Inuyasha's hand over the jewel as well. She stepped closer to him, not caring at all about Kohaku, about the lives she could bring back, about the destiny between Inuyasha and Kikyou she could restore.  
  
Kagome thought, for once, only of herself.  
  
And of Inuyasha.  
  
And Kagome wished upon the Shikon no Tama.  
  
~*~  
  
Well...what'd she wish for? I tried to make it blatantly obvious, but I'm not sure if it worked. So review if you liked it, review if you hated it. Especially review if you are confused. I'll try to clear it up for everyone. If more than ten people are confused and leave a review, I'll add a little second piece to tell what this was all about. Little teeny tiny fic, not even a page and a half in my word processor. But just had to write it. Such an interesting concept, and I don't recall ever seeing one with the ideals behind it that this one has. 


	2. Convert

Ok, I know I said that I wouldn't go any farther with this, other than an explanation, but the idea just wouldn't leave me alone...

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Wishing-Chapter Two: Brilliant  
  
In a bright flash of light, Kagome felt herself falling. She was calm and warm, a tropical breeze ruffling her skirts and touching her hair. She could almost feel the sun kissing her face, more intimate than any lover could be. She felt peaceful.  
  
But then she felt cold hands grip her wrists, claws digging deep into her skin. She was so lethargic, like it was five more minutes until she had to get up for school. School...school...Inuyasha was always trying to keep her from school. He claimed that the Shikon shards were more important than her education.  
  
Wait...Inuyasha?  
  
She slowly opened her eyes, startled when they went so slow and seemed so heavy. She was still falling; she couldn't feel anything under her. Inuyasha was holding onto her wrists. His hands were so cold...so disruptive to her perfect beautiful warmth. But his eyes...his eyes were like twin suns set in a gray wash of sky. Kagome wondered why he was so pale.  
  
Seeing her lids flicker and lift, Inuyasha pulled her into a tight embrace, whispering in her hair, "Bitch, don't ever scare me that way again..."  
  
When Kagome opened her eyes, the magical spell was broken. She made a choking noise in the back of her throat and pushed Inuyasha away from her. His claws catching on her clothing, he tried to keep her close to him. He snarled and she whimpered, and relented. He clutched her close, and she noticed that there was a solid expanse of craggy rock beneath them.  
  
It was hard and cold, jagged and unforgiving. A deep flickering black, it pulsed with a life of it's own. It was like there were throbbing veins of gold deep beneath it's surface, pushing, pushing, wanting to break free and hiss with it's sparking beauty. She reached down to touch it, but Inuyasha just grunted and picked her up gently. "You shouldn't touch it." He explained gruffly. "It's alive with youki. It's waiting for someone to become it's vessel. It's waiting for..."  
  
A fierce battle cry thundered over the plain, and Kagome absently noted that the deep purple clouds wavered a bit and a streak of lightening flashed excitedly over the rolling violent depths. A figure streaked across it, merely a dark blemish against the harsh sky. A great, slithering, oozing, disgustingly powerful mass of...something followed her. Kagome gasped and Inuyasha just clutched her tighter.  
  
"The youkai are waiting for Midoriko to slow down and touch the ground." His eyes were sharp, sharper than the rock, and sharper than the claws that threatened to break her skin. "They're waiting for her to give up and die already. Naraku's influence has made them stronger, just as it's strengthened the youkai blood in me." Kagome noticed for the first time the faint faint bloody streaks in his eyes and the pale violet stripes on his cheeks. He was turning, very very slowly, but he was turning.  
  
With a scared, shaking hand, she reached out and touched his face, running the pads of her fingers along his features, memorizing them. His ears looked a bit rougher, so she reached up and rubbed the soft lining inside of them. He rumbled deep in his throat and leaned his head towards her. His eyes had slid closed and he was content to let her soft fingers caress him. It was a small measure of comfort in this place.  
  
His hands tightened on her thighs, and she blushed when she realized that her skirt had fallen down a little bit. He made a small mewling noise deep in his throat, and jumped out of the way when a bit of demon landed close to them. Kagome watched in horror as the ground pulsed gold and the demon bit was absorbed into the greedy youki. She clutched Inuyasha's haori tighter when a new demon burst from the rock, a patchwork of dozens of different youkai. It was frightening and disgusting and oozing different blood from different places. It jumped into the sky, although Kagome couldn't even begin to figure out how it was mobile, and joined the chase after Midoriko.  
  
Inuyasha set her down gently, making sure that her shoes were still on and no skin was going to touch the black rock. He then motioned for her to climb up onto his back, and she complied almost a little too happily. He took off through the sky, jumping over rock after rock, and Kagome looked around to witness the birth of almost twenty patchwork youkai. It seemed that the youki had a faint sense of what part went where, and as it absorbed the pieces, she noticed that some of them only came up on certain patchwork youkai. For instance, only two of them had the short red arms with the long claws, when at least seven of those arms had been absorbed. Three of them had long, whipping tails and no legs, while the extra legs seemed to go only to youkai with a certain head.  
  
'There's an order to this?' she thought curiously. 'If only certain youkai have certain parts, then maybe they're meant to do something? Like microevolution...' She peered over Inuyasha's shoulder and noted that his eyes were facing straight ahead. "Inuyasha! Where are we going?"  
  
His golden orange eyes slid over to her for a second before he muttered back, just loud enough for her to hear him, "We're trying to find Midoriko's stronghold. She can't simply fight all the time. She's got to have a place to retreat to, her own little bit of soul, when the Shikon no Tama becomes too polluted with youki for her to handle. I'm guessing it's a forest." His nose twitched and his ears perked. "I hear water, but it doesn't smell like the water outside of the Shikon." He picked up the pace, and Kagome could no longer see the youkai being born long enough to determine what they might be built for.  
  
But...weren't there just three demons? Shikon no Tama...Jewel of the Four Souls. Midoriko and then three strong demons that she could not beat. Not...hoards and hoards of them. Maybe they were detachments? Like how Naraku had Kagura and Kanna and Hakudoshi...But as far as Kagome knew, Naraku was simply a hanyou made of tons of separate demons that invaded a single human body. So he had the resources to make dozens of 'children'. But these demons...hadn't the three demons been pure? Not hanyou? Maybe they had bred...It was highly possible, what with the time that they'd spent in this jewel.  
  
She'd have to ask Midoriko.  
  
Inuyasha was wincing and grunting and starting to limp, but he was going faster than ever. Kagome almost called his name, but she closed her eyes instead and concentrated. After all, she was a miko too, right? She should be able to feel any sort of strange aura around. The youki was diminishing, purifying power taking it's place. Inuyasha...he wasn't turning human, like he had at the purified mountain. Instead, she could feel his claws growing long enough to pierce her skin, blood running down her legs, and she could see the stripes on his face darken and lengthen. If she had cared to look, she knew she would find blood eyes with cerulean pupils. This place...Midoriko's sanctuary.  
  
It would seem that the Shikon no Tama played by different rules than the rest of the world. The purifying power was awakening and strengthening Inuyasha's demon blood, but it was getting dangerously close to killing him as well. Kagome reached forward and grabbed his forelocks, pulling back as hard as she could, until he screamed and relented and finally let her go. She ran to the front of him, trying to look past his thick bangs to his face. He smirked and lifted his head up. The look on his face was heartbreakingly close to Sesshoumaru. It was cold, but she could see arrogance there was well.  
  
He swooped down upon her, like a beautiful flacon going in for the kill. One elegant hand rested on her ass, pulling her up and close against the hard lines of his body. The other tangled in her hair, pulling back her head to expose the slim column of her neck. She felt his lips and the wet tip of his tongue trace her artery, and she shivered. He paused and brought her face close to his, resting their foreheads together. Her chocolate eyes searched his for a glimmer of gold, a shimmer of hope. She found none.  
  
"Do you want me?" He pressed harder on her ass, grinding their hips together. She gave a little gasp and bit back a moan. He stared at her closely, his brazen red eyes drinking in the sight of her. She was beginning to flush and squirm, and Inuyasha's hands wound around her tighter. The hand on her ass crept down farther, long claws seeking something that she was unwilling to give.  
  
He lowered his head to her neck once more and bit down hard. She gave a little scream as she felt him muttering something and lapping at the wound. Her neck seemed to burn a little bit and she shoved against him, her purifying power scalding him through the fire rat haori. He howled and jumped back, throwing her on the ground. She turned towards the purifying power and ran, knowing that only a few feet ahead, it grew too powerful for him to follow her.  
  
She jumped over the roots of a gnarled old deciduous tree, pushing aside bushes and branches and not caring when a branch or a vine or a bramble caught and tore at her skin. She paused only for a second when she heard Inuyasha's pained howl of "KAGOME!" that tapered off into a whimper that made her grimace and almost turn back. But then the mark on her neck started to burn and the wounds on her legs started to trickle fresh blood. She hoped, she truly dearly hoped that Inuyasha reverted back to hanyou, but she knew that it was as futile a hope as when she was looking into his blood eyes searching for the sun. He'd been slowly converting from the moment she wished them here, and she didn't know if he'd ever turn back to the Inuyasha she knew.  
  
Kagome then conveniently ignored the liquidly feeling that still lingered between her legs. The memory of those heat-seeking claws and that wickedly talented tongue were overshadowed by the wounds she bore from his...she was hesitant to call it possessiveness, it was more like a flowing arrogance that refused to quit. His strength, his final proof to her that was not human, and all the wishes in the world would not change that fact. And he had never been 'her' Inuyasha. She didn't know why, but her eyes stung then, and she sniffed as she plowed through the underbrush.  
  
The river was so sudden that she almost fell into it. Directly after stepping out of a rather leafy bush, her feet landed on slick, moss-coated rocks. She held onto the leafy bush for a moment longer until she regained her footing. There was a meandering path of stepping stones going across a lazy crystal river. She could see fish and small crawdads sitting still in the water. The white quartz embedded every few feet winked at her, leading her from stone to stone until she reached the opposite shore. There was something...off about that water. It made her want to jump in, stay in the sweet depths and soak and swim and play forever. The longer she stared, the hotter the surrounding air got.  
  
She was a few minutes shy of shucking off her clothes and diving into the river when there was a rustle in the bushes behind her. A wonderfully beautiful woman stepped out, deep black hair down to her waist, slim form covered with a thin summer kimono in a pastel yellow. Her face lit up with a gentle smile when she saw Kagome.  
  
"Hello there, Miko-sama." Her voice was soft, contradicting the dried blood coating her feet and the backs of her hands. She stepped into the river, lifting the hem of the kimono to expose blood-streaked, heavily muscled legs that tapered into slim ankles and pained looking feet. Kagome watched in shock as the woman lifted the kimono to her waistline and kneeled in the river. The water healed the wounds and washed away the blood. She stepped out gently, lifting the sleeves of the kimono to expose torn up arms and a hastily bandaged wrist that looked awkwardly broken.  
  
A dip in the river and she was as good as new.  
  
The freshly cleansed woman smoothed out the creases in her kimono, pulled a lemon yellow ribbon out of her obi and tied her hair back loosely, and then gave a large breath and turned to face Kagome. A small smile on her face, she gave a deep bow and said, "Honored Miko-sama, I am..."  
  
Kagome gave a gasp and said weakly, "M...Midoriko-sama."  
  
The pleasant smile vanished.

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--- A/N: Alright, about the kimono thing, I figured it would make sense if her little piece of the soul came with changes of clothing. XP And there will be many more explanations to come, trust me. Just as soon as I get motivated enough to start the third chapter. And from what we've seen, Kagome is a pretty freaking powerful miko, possibly strong enough to challenge Midoriko herself. So it would make sense for Midoriko to acknowledge her in this way.  
  
Review, please! 


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